Anchor for the vessels

ABSTRACT

The invention is an anchor which constitutes a certain weight in the water, when dropped into the water by means of a connection like a rope or chain connected to the mentioned vessel in order to stabilize the vessels at a required area or point over the sea surface. It has an expandable reservoir which allows the water transmission inside from the outside, keeps the material located inside and is connected to the vessel with the connection and contains a water absorbent material which expands and gets heavy when interacting with water located in the reservoir. When the water absorbent material interacts with water it turns into a mass of thick solid gel and becomes heavier inside the reservoir in which it is located, and reaches the sufficient weight that the reservoir can stabilize the vessel at its place.

TECHNICAL AREA

The invention is about the anchors which provides the anchorage on the sea surface of the vessels like ship, ferryboat, boat etc., or means or elements, like rafts, pontoon that are used together seasonally with the vessels. The invention, especially different from the anchors in the metal hook form of the previous technique, is about the new anchor, which takes up a small amount of space on the vessel and is light, however if thrown into the sea where it will be desired to anchor, it quickly comes in volumetric expansion through interacting with the sea water and becomes heavier as it keeps expanding and thus providing the vessel anchoring where it is.

THE KNOWN STATUS OF THE TECHNIQUE

The anchors are simple elements that enable the vessels stabilized on a determined point on the sea surface or area by anchoring on the sea bottom. Depending on the vessel or on the depth they are used, they are produced of various metal types in different weights and forms. The anchors generally consist of shank, flukes, crown and arms as they are called in the maritime terminology. On the ship, boat-anchor (iron) connection which entirely or partially consist of metal chain, ropes are also used on demand.

The need of anchoring at the desired point in the open sea has been the most important impulse to effect the development of the existing anchors. Simply starting from big and heavy stone shapes, in the course of time they became the form of improved elements which include various hook stabilizing tools.

To drop the iron anchors into the sea when it will be desired to remain anchored and weigh anchor when it will be desired to move requires a specific design on the vessel. For example on big vessels the generally cylindrical designed section where the iron rope or chain gets through and the anchor will be kept, is called the iron hawse. While the anchor is kept at its place on the bow of the ship instead of the aforementioned hawse on the medium seized vessels, on the small seized vessels, the anchor without any mechanism, will be dropped and weighed manually. As two important factors in stabilizing the vessel at the bottom of the sea, the weight of the iron equipment and the strength of the iron to stay stabilized at the bottom of the sea play role. While it was given particular importance to heaviness by the improvement of the anchors before, by today's anchors it is being tried to reduce the total weight by increasing the resistance with some modifications on their designs. The iron anchors today are available in the markets in many forms and variety as hook, drag type, Danforth and Bruce type and are used according to the conditions. It has been applied for the designs in question and they have taken their places in the literature.

The USA patent, dated 1983 with U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,257 mentions about an anchor designed for large ships. The anchor which consists of the shank with two branches that forms the arms of the anchor and the foot of the anchor are mounted with a joint to enable their vertical movement against each other. By means of this design, it has been tried to provide the possibility of stabilizing to both hard and soft surfaces at the bottom of the sea through one anchor.

In the international patent application with No. WO2007101311 an anchor with three arms bottom is being explained. Each arm has grooves in order to fix the anchor to the bottom of the sea. Even though the anchor, a completely metal structure, provides a good possibility of stabilizing after it is dropped into the sea, it has to possess structures in order to be weighed and kept on the vessel.

GB2448909 is another example for the metal anchors that can be given. Because the anchor with a kind of metal plough has a blade-form structure, it is capable to get stabilized more easily to the sea bottom.

Apart from the metal anchor structures mentioned before, non-metal, lighter structures which taker less space on the vessel are also tried to be developed.

The invention explained in the patent application with No. GB2165198 is one of the oldest examples of these types. It has been positioned to the wide opening or the anchor by means of the leech, which is inflatable by a valve. A certain amount of weight has been attached under the anchor, in order both to prevent the rotation of the anchor and stabilize the vessel by making it available to swim just below the water surface.

In the Japanese patent application with No. JPH09254870 a triangle anchor which can be opened in two directions will be explained. The anchor in triangle form which spreads inside the sea and covers a broad surface and thus stabilizes the ship by providing resistance within the sea is fixed to a rope from its three corners through strings that can be opened in a certain distance.

In the design application with No. USD492576 a balancing ring to be used on such kinds of anchors in parachute form can be observed.

In the application with No. JP2004161080 an anchor in parachute form developed for the fishing vessels are determined. The anchor which consists of an upper parachute part and a lower bottom part contains a net part mat enables water to be filled in through these two sides at the middle part of the anchor. Through a pontoon from the lower bottom part, the location of the anchor can be easily determined by the people in the vessel.

Both the space of the anchors in parachute form and the metal ones that take in the ship, when they get dropped to the sea and by weighing anchor, all cause problems. The metal ones require a different design, equipment and physical space for weighing anchor and getting located on an appropriate place in respect of their structures. In addition to this, the iron anchors cause danger for the benthos, because they cause destruction at the sea bottom.

Consequently, all of the above explained previous technical solutions failed to satisfy the solutions of the problems of the vessel for taking less place, lightness, easy anchoring and not to cause destruction at the sea bottom. Therefore, a technical solution that overcomes all the problems in question became obligatory.

THE PURPOSE AND SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the invention is to produce an anchor to stabilize the vessels safely and quickly especially in the open sea, to drop anchor in maritime terminology and to weigh anchor.

Another purpose of this invention is, to produce such an anchor, if thrown to the sea, by quickly coming in volumetric expansion through interacting with the sea water and becoming heavier as keeping expanding and thus providing the vessel stabilizing where desired, and when desired, getting ready to sail by removing the weight that was generated inside and collecting it quickly.

One other purpose of the invention is to structure an easy to use anchor by using the feature of the polymer material which gets heavier through collecting the water in itself, after it interacts with water, placed in a flexible bag which increases in volume as the material in it expands.

SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES

In FIG. 1, a simulation is being given, regarding the working principal as an approach for the processes of the anchor as the invention in question, before getting dropped into the sea and after it has been dropped to the sea.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 Anchor

11 Expandable reservoir

12 Material that absorbs water

12.1. Mass

13. Evacuation mechanism

14. Anchoring rope

15. Anchoring lock-ring

20. Vessel

30. Water lever (sea)

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a produced anchor especially to solve the problems being faced in the current technique defined as anchoring or stabilizing in the open sea and could not completely be solved by the various metal anchors or anchors in parachute form that were improved until today. A new alternative to the iron anchors or anchors in parachute form in various forms and structures which reaches the sea bottom or goes down for a certain depth and are used in order to stop or keep the vessels, especially ships and boats, vehicles and means like rafts, pontoons and by ground tackle applications stabilized in the open sea, has been developed through the present invention. According to FIG. 1 the invention can be explained as below. The mentioned dimensions and sizes aim to be helpful for a better understanding of the invention and does not bear an effect of reducing the protection scope of the patent.

At the picture on FIG. 1, beside the differences from the previous technique, also the working principle of the anchor subject of invention is being tried to be presented. It will be sufficient to drop the anchor subject of invention (10) into the sea together with the rope or chain it is connected to (14) in any area or point on the surface of the sea (30) where there is a need to stabilization. On FIG. 1, if the first condition over the water surface before it was dropped into the sea (30) is x units in volume and weight, at the end of the anchoring process it is expected to be 150-300 x. In other words; to reach the 150-300 times of its first condition weight and expand in volume constitutes its working principle. In none of the explained structures and mechanisms of the previous techniques there was such an anchor structure working with the mentioned principal.

The anchor subject to invention (10) contains a structurally expandable reservoir (11), a material which absorbs water inside the mentioned reservoir (12), a rope and/or chain (14), an anchoring ring where the mentioned rope will be connected to the anchor (15), the mentioned reservoir (11), the mass inside (12.1) which is built over it and an evacuation mechanism (13) which enables it to be released.

The expandable reservoir (11) has a structure which can expand in volume up to 100-300 times of its present condition and at the same time keeps the material inside while it allows the water inflow from outside. Nowadays, there are special textile products which fulfils all functions.

Inside the reservoir mentioned (11) a material (12) is located which turns into a mass while expanding and becoming heavier by absorbing the water. The aforementioned material is a super absorbent polymer on the anchor subject to invention (10). The super absorbent material (12) is sodium polyacrylate super absorbent material that is preferably used in different areas today. It is known as not being harmful to the environment and has a an expanding volume feature when contacting water and becoming jelly and heavy when it adsorbs the water.

When the material in question (12) and the anchor (10) mechanism are considered together, the working principle can be explained in this way; A certain amount of the polymer material (12) which was before on the ship or boat as powder—for example 1 kg—will be put into the expandable reservoir (11) and the reservoir (11) will be closed. When it will be dropped into the sea (20) together with the rope (14) it is connected to the interaction with the aforementioned material (12) starts as the result of the contact or the water flowing through the reservoir (11) which gets filled with water. The polymer material mentioned (12) absorbing the water becomes a thick jelly and starts to expand and also make the reservoir it is located in expand and becomes heavier at the same time. The reservoir (11) which expands up to 150-300 times in mass and volume of its first status has now the weight and volume of the vessel it is connected.

When it will be desired to weigh anchor and start to move again, the evacuation mechanism (13) will be applied. The purpose of the evacuation mechanism (13) is to take the mass (12.1) inside the reservoir (11) out of the reservoir (11). Therefore the mechanism (13) mentioned will preferably be a zip fastener or a fastening element in type of Velcro fastener which is located under the reservoir (11) and can be controlled by a cord which will be released to the sea together with the rope (14). The zip fastener will be opened by pulling the mentioned cord and the mass (12.1) leaves the reservoir (11) through the earth gravity effect. Thus the reservoir (11), becoming empty, will totally get light and will easily be pulled up by means of the rope (14) rapidly and will be placed to the section built for it on the vessel. In order to get it ready to anchoring again, it has to be located into the reservoir sufficient for anchoring, for example each 1 kg—polymer material (12) in packages can be prepared. In this way it will be possible to bring the anchor (10) subject to invention ready to be used by locating it practically in the reservoir (11) during anchoring. 

1. An anchor for a vessel presenting a certain weight in water, when dropped into the water by means of a connection like at least one of a rope and a chain connected to the vessels, in order to stabilize the vessels at a required area or point over the surface of the water said anchor comprising an expandable feature which allows the water transmission inside from the outside, keeps the material located inside and contains a water absorbent material which expands and gets heavy when interacting with water inside a reservoir connected to the vessel with the connection.
 2. The anchor as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the water absorbent material is a super absorbent polymer.
 3. The anchor as set forth in claim 2 wherein the super absorbent polymer is a sodium polyacrylate super absorbent.
 4. The anchor as set forth in claim 1 wherein the water absorbent material interacts with water, inside the reservoir where it is located and turns into a mass that becomes a solid thick gel and gets heavier wherein the weight of the reservoir that increases sufficiently to stabilize the vessel.
 5. The anchor as set forth in claim 4 including an evacuation mechanism constituted over the reservoir in order to remove the mass out of the reservoir the vessel.
 6. The anchor as set forth in claim 5 including fastening elements to provide an opening, wide enough to allow the mass to leave the reservoir easily, being controlled from the vessel.
 7. The anchor as set forth in claim 6, wherein the fastening elements include at least one of a zip fastener and a Velcro fastener. 